Is it OK to use built-in function names for custom class methods in Python 3?

Question

A colleague of mine has defined a class with a method print. It is called as instance.print() to dump some text to stdout (it pretty much just wraps print()).

I feel like this is bad practice and want to suggest we refactor this but I can't think of any good reasons to justify this either.

I don't think this is a very bad practice. Both print functions belongs to different classes so both of them will do their respective work without shadowing. Still for readability they should not use builtin names. — Arpit Solanki, Jan 31 '18 at 12:05
If you cant think of a good reason does that not answer your question? — Nick is tired, Jan 31 '18 at 12:25
@NickA of course not, I don't consider myself an ultimate authority on Python :) the collective knowledge of SO on the other hand... — deed02392, Jan 31 '18 at 13:03

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 31 '18 at 12:31

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Yes it is bad practice. All of these decisions are very subjective and can be interpreted differently therefore I suggest reading the official PEP8 style guide. You can even include it with your editor to suggest changes!

Another massive reason why this is really bad practice is; while it works in Python3 as expected, in Python2 print was a name which precludes you from using it as an identifier, including a method name.

answered Jan 31 '18 at 12:31

Oyster773

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Which section of PEP8 are you referring to?\ – jamylak Jan 31 '18 at 12:51
In 2018 it already was not very important to take into consideration compatibility with Python 2. – pabouk - Ukraine stay strong Jun 07 '22 at 15:45

Is it OK to use built-in function names for custom class methods in Python 3?

1 Answers1